GALES of up to 60mph caused misery for rail passengers trying to make their journey to work in the region this morning.

Trains travelling from Stratford to Birmingham Snow Hill were delayed by up to 30 minutes after gusts of up to 55mph knocked a tree onto a railway line at Wood End station, between Stratford and Shirley. Passengers were even roped into action to help clear the tracks.

A London Midland spokesman said Network Rail was dealing with a large number of incidents at the time and so the train crew and passengers worked together to shift the debris, which shut the line for 40 minutes.

Another tree was blown onto the line near Stourbridge Junction, causing rush hour delays, while Western Power Distribution confirmed around 6,000 properties in the Walsall area were left without power as debris damaged power lines in the early hours yesterday.

The power cut also affected traffic management signals on the M6. It forced the closure of the south-bound hard shoulder and caused rush hour queues to build up, between junctions 10A for Walsall and 10 for Essington.

And a clear-up operation got under way at around 12.30pm after the wind tipped a refuse lorry on the M6 by Coventry. Residents in Stone Road, Stafford, also reported winds ripping roof felting from their homes.

Meanwhile, further reports of trees crashing down onto roads came from Common Lane, Bednall, in Stafford, the A34 Queensway in Stafford town centre, Wrottesley Park Road in Perton near Wolverhampton, and Bromsgrove Road, Clent, near Stourbridge.

Ian Michaelwaite, from Netweather.TV, said: "Birmingham really has been battered by winds of late.

"Winds of 40mph with gusts of just shy of 55mph yesterday were bad enough, but would have felt considerably worse in Birmingham’s city centre streets. They came on the back of blustery weather earlier in the week that would have weakened trees, roofs and buildings first, meaning there was a greater chance of debris falling yesterday.

"But the winds faded as the day went on and that should continue today with possible winds of 30mph and gusts of up to 40mph. And it’ll continue to calm down as we go into the weekend, when the weather should be pretty good with maybe some light showers."

"And with temperatures around seven or eight degrees, it’s actually warmer than this time last year, when it was around five degrees, but the windchill has made it feel much colder this week."

The high winds led to a series of disruptions to rush-hour train services across the country.

A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: "Some rail services have been disrupted owing to incredibly strong wind and localised flooding overnight and this morning.

"Hundreds of fallen trees and debris including ripped-off roofs and children’s trampolines have been removed from tracks and scores of damaged overhead power lines have been repaired across the country by Network Rail engineers.

"Passenger safety is the industry’s top priority but we apologise to anyone who has been affected by disruption.

"Train companies and Network Rail will continue to work closely together to resolve problems quickly in what are extremely challenging conditions, to ensure as many trains can safely run as possible."

Across the UK, gusts of up to 76mph have been forecast, with the north of Wales expected to see the highest wind speeds.

Winds of up to 87mph were recorded at Capel Curig in Wales at 2am following a brief respite from storms which resulted in two deaths.

Forecasters said the winds were now hailing from a north-westerly rather than a westerly direction, bringing with them a drop in temperature. Sally Webb, a forecaster with MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "It will be quite blustery later but through the day the winds are weakening gradually. Overnight it should calm down a lot compared to how it has been.

"There are more north-westerly winds today, which is why they feel quite a bit chillier."

The Met Office issued yellow warnings of wind for Strathclyde, south west Scotland and Lothian Borders, Northern Ireland, Wales and north west England.

In other incidents across the UK, a woman and a 10-year-old boy were taken to hospital with minor injuries after a tree crashed on to their car outside a primary school in the Hertfordshire village of Shenley at around 7.50am.

London Fire Brigade attended a string of wind-related incidents across the capital overnight, when gusts blew a wind turbine in Barking and scaffolding in Tavistock Square into "precarious positions".

Just after midnight, firefighters were called to reports of a tree that had toppled on to a house in strong winds in Chingford, east London, trapping four people inside.

The Highways Agency said the Severn Crossing between England and Wales was closed to high-sided vehicles and motorcycles in both directions due to strong winds.

It also warned anyone planning to use the Dartford Crossing between Kent and Essex of possible delays as winds of 60mph were predicted for the area.

Humberside Police urged motorists to take care after a number of trees were brought down overnight, while the Humber Bridge and the M62 over the Ouse Bridge, near Howden, were both closed to high-sided vehicles.

North Yorkshire Fire Service was called out to flooding at a number of homes and firefighters used a boat to help rescue a barge which was in danger of overturning when it was caught in moorings on the River Ouse in central York.

A lorry driver was taken to hospital when a HGV overturned on the A1 at Leeming and crews were called to two incidents of cars trapped in flood water.

Cheshire Police said officers had attended more than 15 incidents relating to fallen trees, branches, and debris in the road since 6am today.

Norfolk County Council said it dealt with 200 incidents on the county’s roads overnight as gales and rain brought trees, branches and a power line down, and blew debris on to roads and pavements. Three schools were closed because of weather-related problems.

Meanwhile Environment Agency flood alerts remain in place for a number of rivers including the River Tavy at Tavistock and most the the River Tamar.

Around 1,000 homes in the Salisbury area of Wiltshire are without electricity after power cables came down due to strong winds, Southern Electric said.

One of the men who died in high winds on Tuesday was named by police as married father-of-three Christopher Hayes, 51, who was killed when a tree crushed his parked van in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

The second death was a crew member on board a tanker owned by Pritchard-Gordon Tankers Ltd, which was hit by a large wave off the coast of the south Devon/Cornwall border. Two other injured crew members were in a stable condition.